Yeast pitching...

[TRIPLEMSU]

i kegged my ipa 10 days...so i canned about 1/2 the yeast cake for further use and left 1/2 in the bucket...

can i still use the yeast cake in the bukcet from 10 days ago?? it has been kept at constant 70 degree temp and the bucket isnt contaminated or anything.

any advice would be appreciated

 

[DrWill]

Contamination is your biggest concern, so if you're confident, I would proceed. There might be some autolysis during the 10 day period, and I'm frankly not sure what that is going to do to your finished product.

I would drain it off and wash it, then see if I can get it going with a starter rather than risking just throwing 20 litres of wort on to it.

Will

 

[dcp27]

I would drain it off and wash it, then see if I can get it going with a starter rather than risking just throwing 20 litres of wort on to it.

personally I wouldnt use it as its just been sitting in a bucket with no protection so who knows the quality, but if you're willing, I'd go with Will's approach

 

[TRIPLEMSU]

it has been covered and a new sanitized blow off tube is already attached and clean...nothing has touched anything in the bucket at all...think i might try it and see what happens

 

[tre9er]

Did you literally draw a line down the center of the cake and take, say, the left side and harvest it, leaving the right behind? Or did you slush, pour off half, and leave the rest?

If the latter, you'll probably have more trub than yeast in the remaining cake.

 

[kh54s10]

it has been covered and a new sanitized blow off tube is already attached and clean...nothing has touched anything in the bucket at all...think i might try it and see what happens

Ambient air is loaded with billions of microbes. When you racked the beer off the yeast cake, your fermenter filled with ambient air.

I would use some of the yeast that you canned instead of the yeast cake.

But that's just my opinion. YMMV!

 

[progmac]

you need like a sixth of a cake for a normal gravity brew, so maybe just dump what is in the bucket and pitch half of what you put in the fridge

 

[tre9er]

I can attest slurries are pretty potent. I used a 3 month old Kolsch slurry (entire cake) that had been refrigerated the entire 3mos and pitched it at room temp into 4g. of 1.078 IIPA and it took it down to 1.014 in a week :rockin: No starter, no problem. Of course, I should have split the cake and made starters from each portion...I getz lazy.

 

[cmybeer]

Was there any beer left over in the yeastcake? I remember hearing somewhere that it is that protective layer of alcohol that helps preserve yeast at the bottom of the carboy for extended periods of time if you don't rack right away.

 

[TRIPLEMSU]

Plenty of beer was left on top of the slurry...so think i might brew tonight and give this a try...thx guys